


Restraint

by shadowolfhunter



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fear, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pain, Permanent Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 01:31:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9267698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowolfhunter/pseuds/shadowolfhunter
Summary: AU, inspired by some promo pictures from Season 6 ep 2.Sean Renard has gambled all and lost. His former friends want to see him tried for his crimes, then up pops his family, and an unsettling bargain is struck. The Police will give Sean to his cousin, and whatever happens after that is up to Viktor.Monroe and Rosalee are not happy about it, but with everyone ranged against the former Captain, they reluctantly agree. But Monroe hasn't quite forgotten that Renard played his part in saving Monroe from the Wesenrein, and knowing that the Captain faces brutal torture from his family, Monroe and Rosalee quietly resolve to do all that they can to help.Rescued by Monroe's German contacts, a badly injured, damaged Captain is brought home to Portland in secret, where Rosalee does her best to cure his injuries. But it's less the physical damage wrought than the emotional pain the zauberbiest has suffered. On opposite sides, can Nick and Sean breach the divide between them and fulfil the destiny they were meant for. Have they finally learned what restraint and reconciliation truly mean?





	1. Restraint

It's been four days, and Sean knows that this is it. Today Viktor comes to claim him, and then all that Sean can look forward to is a slow, agonising death at the hands of his cousin's torturers.

He's tired, his normally immaculate attire is rumpled and dirty. His pale blue shirt has stains on it, his tie and jacket long gone, probably taken into evidence. They've taken his belt from him, though they left him with his shoelaces, not likely he'd be able to hang himself with them, although the belt might cheat Viktor of his fun.

He can't beg, all he has left is what shreds of dignity he can gather about himself. No one will miss him. Adalind will be relieved, she never saw him as Diana's father, just as the sperm donor. He doubts his daughter will miss him.

If he has to die, he would rather she didn't miss him. No painful memories of a father she barely knew. Just a void that Nick will happily fill, and they will all cast him out of their lives forever. The bitter irony is that he realises now, when it's all far too late, that he will miss this. Will miss the cut and thrust of battle, keeping Portland safe from the monsters that were out there. He will miss fighting alongside Nick, and Nick will never know what being Grimm has truly cost Sean one way and another.

Hank's on the other side of the bars, and he motions Sean to turn around. Renard does so. Puts his hands behind him without hesitation or protest. No need to make this harder than it already is. The cuffs are slipped around his wrists, and secured, Wu opens the door to the cell, and he's ready for transportation.

Fingers slip around his wrists, he hears two little clicks as the cuffs ratchet tighter. He holds in the flicker of a sour smile. Nick, of course. The Grimm is smart, not tight enough to strangle his circulation, but enough to chafe and cause increasing discomfort. Sean gives no sign, he wouldn't give the Grimm the satisfaction, he walks towards his doom with head held high. He feels as though he's in a bubble, he cannot look at Nick, although he's aware the Grimm is watching with a hard satisfaction on his face, he barely registers Viktor, then he's being led out of the precinct, where once he was, if not happy, then fulfilled to a degree, and driven through the streets to the airfield, and he says goodbye to his home in his head.

 

Monroe hears the aircraft, knows that it is probably taking Sean Renard to Austria, where he will die slowly and cruelly at the hands of his family. For all that he has done, Monroe cannot quite let it all go. He cannot forget that Sean Renard turned out to save him, save lowly Blutbad Monroe from and agonising death at the hands of the Wesenrein.

Monroe is not ready to let that go.

Rosalee hands her husband a tea, she knows what is in his mind and heart, and she can't disagree. Renard has done a lot of bad things, it's true, but there is a still a corner of her heart that regrets what he suffered for Nick, as well as saving her Monroe. So she looks up at the sound of the aircraft passing by and nods. Knowing that Monroe is going to do what he can to save Sean. Aware that they are taking a risk, and in the final analysis, they might not have enough to save the man who might be their enemy, but was once their friend.

 

It's hard. They are alone in this, Nick, and all Nick's other friends have washed their hands of Sean Renard. They don't care what he suffers, they have all lost too much to just forget that Renard was ranged against them. So Monroe and Rosalee are alone in their quest.

A month passes.

Then two. 

It's painful the waiting. They don't know if there is any chance left. It's been more than two months, he could well be dead already.

Just when they are ready to give up hope, the call comes in. They have him, he's being smuggled out.

So Monroe and Rosalee, blutbad and fuchsbau go to save the half zauberbiest who could have destroyed them all.

Now begins the road back, and a long and hard road it is going to be.


	2. In Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean's back in Portland. Nick is waiting for the other shoe to drop. It doesn't and he's confused. Monroe and Rosalee are very reluctant for him to go anywhere near Sean. Nick is horrified and confused when he finds out why.

Sean is pathetically grateful for everything that Rosalee and Monroe do for him. After the first disastrous day when Monroe mentions Nick and Sean nearly panics they keep off the subject of Burkhardt. Or the Mayor. Or the Precinct. Or mostly everything that might involve Sean's past. Other taboo subjects are what was done to Sean. Rosalee treats bruises, burns, whip marks, strange shaped cuts, torn toenails, a knife slash to the back of Sean's right thigh that is infected. Sean has nerve damage in both hands from brutally tight cuffs left on too long. He will probably never hold a gun again. It's all he can manage to hold a cup of coffee, or his cutlery. He drops things a lot. Apologizes profusely when he does.

It unnerves Monroe, but he knows the man was tortured, he's coping the only way he can. Essentially by shutting down. Rosalee does her best. But one of the biggest problems is the difficulty Sean has looking either of them in the eye.

Elizabeth arrives, how she knew is a mystery to Monroe, but she appeared at the time of her son's death over a year ago, so he supposes she has her ways. And Sean is her son. When Monroe sees the tears in her eyes, any fear he might have had for one of the most powerful Hexenbiester in existence disappears. She embraces him and Rosalee, with a gentle fervour and promises them anything they desire if they will only look after her Sean.

Monroe will do that anyway. Sean has done a lot of bad things, but Nick and all their group are not exactly blameless (except Hank and Wu, who've never really done anything to the former Captain), Sean did not deserve being handed over to his brutal cousin, who is being kept neatly distracted by the minor war that Elizabeth has induced amongst all the possible claimants to Frederick's throne.

Elizabeth liquidates all her son's assets, transfers them into some kind of secret account that only Monroe and Rosalee have access too, Sean's too much of a mess to cope with being seen in public, even if that is a risk that on one wants to take right now. Elizabeth cleverly manages so that she is never seen by any of Sean's former department, she has spent more than four decades of her own life and her son's just staying alive, and both Monroe and Rosalee are impressed with her skills.

The dark and creepy cottage in the woods where Nick first captured the blutbad who was killing little girls has stood empty since that creature's demise. Elizabeth acquires it through a couple of blind proxies, put it in Monroe's name with a hidden trust for Sean in his lifetime. When he's well enough, they move him to his new home under cover of darkness. There's now a gate at the end of the bridge, and the land is fenced in, a sophisticated network of cameras, and a series of spells that Elizabeth has put around the place protects it.

For the first time since he was delivered to Monroe and Rosalee's place, Sean stands tall. Monroe thinks he can almost detect the ghost of what the Captain once was. But Sean Lascelles is not the Renard of old. The biggest clue is taking his mother's name. It is safe to say that whatever ambitions he once harboured have been burned away in his cousin's dungeons. It marks another first, the first time Sean looks them both actually in the eye.

He's still handsome, in that the scars that mark his cheek and the side of his head, where his biest marks come out, in a strange way don't really detract from his looks. But the fear and the suffering that Sean can't quite hide break Monroe's heart anyway.

The cottage is on the edge of the forest, thousands of acres of trees for Sean to roam in, as he gets his strength back, keeping out of the way of people. It's isolated, and suits the situation. He's just settling in, when his old life rears its head.

 

Nick knows, sort of, that Sean Renard is back in Portland. It bothers Nick on several levels, but no one has seen him. Nick has his suspicions about Monroe and Rosalee, but everything that relates to Sean, and handing him over to Viktor is a touchy subject that Nick doesn't really want to approach with them. It's not that Nick isn't close friends with them, he is, there's just a distance that Nick cannot bridge when it comes to what happened to Sean.

Time goes on, and still no one has seen the zauberbiest, and Nick has to admit at this time that he's curious. No one's seen him, it's been months, what if he's planning something.

Another couple of months pass, and Nick decides he needs to know.

 

He decides to broach the subject when they're waiting for one of Monroe's contacts to confirm something for a case of Nick's.

"So... Sean." he says.

Monroe gives him a steady look. "What about him?" He doesn't deny it, Nick notes, in fact there's a level of frost and command in Monroe's voice that surprises. As does, "he's done nothing, just leave him in peace." This time there's no mistaking the frost.

Nick scowls. "Done nothing? Really."

Monroe eyes Nick. "Dude, are you really wanting to go there."

Nick nods decisively, "I think so." There's a firmness in Monroe's voice that's a little surprising.

Monroe sighs, and looks down for a moment. Sean is better now, stronger, but even if he's better physically, his emotional state is still quite precarious. Not that Nick would see it like that. Monroe is fairly certain that Nick has never considered his former Captain as a man with any sort of emotion.

But they can't ignore this forever. Nick knows that Sean is back, and it might just be best to get this over with.

"This evening?"

Nick nods. Satisfied.

Just a Grimm checking out a threat, nothing more.

 

He's surprised when he recognises the cottage from so long ago. If Sean is hiding out, it makes a sort of sense, but it's still something of a surprise, he doubts the Renard he knows would really want to spend much time in such a place.

Monroe goes first, really wishing that he hadn't brought Nick to this place. Not now. With some degree of surprise Monroe realises _not ever_.

He knocks. A moment or two and Sean opens the door. Feeling very foolish, Monroe says "Surprise!"

Nick looks up. There's a tall muscular figure in the doorway, wearing a thick hooded top with the hood up, and jeans. There's waves of tension radiating from the man, but he backs away from the open door, and Monroe steps in and Nick follows, because there's this weird vibe, and he's not seen Sean's face, and something is really wrong and Nick has no idea what it is.

It's evening. Dark. There's a lamp over a chair, and a book, but Sean retreats to the chair on the other side of the fire place (the only other source of light in the room, and he folds himself into the chair, and Nick knows that the vibe he's feeling is fear.

Sean's afraid of him.

Nick takes the armchair beneath the lamp, as Monroe places himself between them on the small couch, and the silence grows as Nick tries to find something to say.


	3. Fight or Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're in the same space but Sean is silent, and Nick just doesn't know what to do. He can't even get the man he thought he hated, the one who brought everything crashing down around him, to look him in the eye...

God, it's awkward. Nick tries to come up with something, but the very silence and stillness of his opponent dries every question in his head before it makes it to his lips. Sean seems to be trying to make himself smaller. His arms are folded, in a kind of defensive posture that Nick has never seen from Sean Renard, the big man is hunched into the hoodie he's wearing, sleeves pulled down over his hands, hood pulled forward. The zauberbiest is in shadow, and Nick cannot even see his face, how can they communicate.

"Why are you back here?" It's the only thing he can think of saying, and it comes out too raw, all wrong, accusing, and he kind of meant to accuse, but Sean shrinks back in the chair, and there's a hitch to his breathing, and tension begins to rise.

"I think we need to leave." Says Monroe. There's both apology and fierceness in his tone, and Nick wants to disagree, but he can't tear his eyes away from the shadowed figure, "Now!" Says Monroe, firmly, he's on his feet, and he's reaching out to take Nick's arm, and then Nick is on his feet, outside the door, "a minute" says Monroe and the door closes behind him. It seems so final.

Nick drifts a bit outside, not wanting to walk back to the car, aimless, thwarted, restless... He glances back to the cottage, and his breath catches in his throat.

He doesn't know what he expected, but when Sean passes by the cottage window, his hood is pushed back and Nick sees his face for the first time since they gave Sean to his cousin all those months ago.

The scar is huge, a burn of some kind, it crosses Sean's cheek, from below his left eye almost to the point of his chin, and bile rises in Nick's throat as he sees it. Sees the scar and knows that's the cheek that turns zauber. Questions in his mind what kind of effect that might have on Sean's ability to woge. The implications of what he's seeing makes him sick. Nick turns away and leans against a convenient tree as he loses his lunch.

 

They drive back in near silence. Nick has a thousand burning questions and a fear of asking them, he wants to hold his anger for longer, but his conscience is doing a number on his soul. Monroe is uncharacteristically quiet, and even Nick can feel the anger. 

Nick tries. "I..."

"Not everything is about you, Nick." Monroe's angry, but he's sad too. Sad for his part in it, and sad for Sean that they never tried to stop this before it started. It wasn't as though there were no opportunities. Now Sean's is beyond damaged, and he could have been an ally.

"Really?" There's still a little temper in there, Nick still feels some justification. "After everything that Sean has done?"

"We had an opportunity." Monroe nods to himself. "More than one in fact, and we did nothing. He was terrified after Jack, and we just left him out there. He felt weak and exposed, so he turned back to what he thought he wanted, because we never reached out." He pulled over to the curb, turning to face Nick. "i know he's done bad things, and I know you shouldn't have to forgive him for everything, but he's more than broken now Nick. Where's your heart?"

"Adalind, Kelly..."

"Yes, that was bad Nick, but Diana is Sean's, and there's more to all of that, and you know it." Monroe sighs a little. "Did you ever stop to wonder what they would have done to him if he had gone against them? And he thought he was all alone. He thought he had no one and nothing to lose. And we did that, Nick. We made him feel as though he had nothing left. Yes, it was sad and stupid and no he should never have done that, but can't you find it in you to give him a little compassion?"

The question comes out before Nick could stop it. "What did they do to him?"

"It's not so much the what, as the who, Nick." Monroe swallows, he knows this will hurt Nick, but still. He needs to know. They need to find someway to lance this boil before things get worse. "He didn't tell us much, but it was Tavitian who got him out, and he told me Viktor has a Grimm." He lets that sink in for a moment. "I didn't need to know what happened, just that this Grimm was the Wesen nightmare of our folklore."

Nick draws two fingers down his cheek, and Monroe flinches. "Yes..." He can't say more, and Nick is sick to his soul. He fights down the rising bile.

"I need to know he isn't going to act against us." He does. He needs reassurance. So does Adalind.

Monroe scowls. His eyes flash a little red. "Really? You saw him, and you are asking that." He shakes his head. "Dude."

Nick shakes his head. He needs to think this through. "Thanks for the ride, Monroe."

Monroe nods. Nothing more to say now.

 

Nick broods on and off for the next few days. It's on an endless loop in his head. Everything keeps colliding, and he doesn't really know what to do, other than he has to go back there.

He finds himself driving up there, alone this time. He might not even get past the door, but he needs to let this out, perhaps then he can get some answers, some understanding of why Renard did what he did.

He parks on the bridge, and goes through the gate, it's relatively early morning, and as far as Nick knows, Sean never leaves the woods, so he should be around somewhere. Nick walks up and knocks on the door. Silence. He knocks again in case. No answer, he's about to turn away, when he hears a stealthy step behind him. He whirls around.

Sean's standing there. He's six feet away. His hood is up, shadowing his face, hiding the scar that Nick knows is there, but his sleeves are pushed up, and now Nick realises there are braces on both wrists. Sean's hands are empty, fingers curled a little, spread wide in front of him. His posture radiates fear, and Nick wants to move to reassure him, but until they can clear this thing between them, he doesn't think he can find it within himself to reassure Sean.

"i need to know what you are going to do?" He tries to keep his tone level, but it comes out somewhat accusatory, and Sean shrinks back a little. Nick never wanted that, he never wanted to be feared, whatever else has gone on he never thought Sean Renard would be afraid of him.

But it's clear the big zauberbiest isn't just afraid, he's actually terrified.

Terrified of Nick, of what Nick might do.

In that moment it also occurs to Nick that he is between Sean and the door, and this is ramping up Sean's anxiety. He moves to one side, and Sean slips past him, into the cottage. Nick turns expecting the door to be shut, but it's ajar, and there's just the slightest chance this is an opportunity.

Nick's going to take it as such.

He turns and follows Sean into the cottage.


	4. Learning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick makes things worse, but even so, still finds it hard to forgive Sean. Until Monroe tells him something which devastates Nick. But still, how can Nick forgive and forget?

Sean enters his kitchen. He hates himself for fearing Nick, for running away, he knows the flight response is conditioning from what he suffered at the hands of his cousin, but still it's Nick he fears.

He walks over to his kettle, a cup of tea to calm himself down, as he reaches out his hands are shaking, frustrated he rubs the right hand with the left. The numbness and tingling in the right hand is a problem he rather didn't crop up just now.

 

Nick follows the zauberbiest into his lair. At least that's what it seems like to Nick. He's trying to equate this Renard with the arrogant man that they managed to get rid of eight months before.

This version seems as far removed from Sean Renard, zauberbiest and bastard Prince as chalk and cheese, and Nick wants to know what Renard's game is. Putting it together in his head. He isn't sure he believes this seemingly new version of Renard.

It's what he's going to do about it which running through his mind. A large part of him wants to arrest Renard, take him to the precinct, and put the fear of god into him, so that he will never be a problem again. But somehow Nick suspects that Rosalee and Monroe won't be very down with that. He looks at Sean's hunched back, sees the man rub his right hand with his left, wonders why.

Dammit, this is Sean Renard, his enemy, Nick thinks about it. Get cuffs on him, get him back to the station and fix this for Nick, Adalind and Kelly. For once and all.

He walks up behind Renard, his step confident, "hands behind your back," he reaches out for Renard's right wrist.

The metal of the cuff barely touches the brace when Nick realises he's made a serious mistake.

Renard's scream of pain and terror cuts through him like a knife, the bigger man pulls away hard, and Nick tries to hold on, he's fought difficult suspects before, but Renard's not really tracking and he's huge and strong. Nick lets go as Renard pulls back in a panic, he slams into the kitchen counter, into the wall before hitting the door frame by the back door. For a second Nick thinks he's going to bolt through the door, but the zauberbiest's knees just fold, and he slides down the wall. He curls into himself in a way that freaks Nick out. Whatever response he expected, this wasn't it. 

Ten, fifteen minutes pass and Renard shows no sign of snapping out of it. Nick moves a little closer and that seems to make everything much worse.

Nick didn't think it was possible for Sean to shrink back, try and make himself smaller, but it was.

Nick has no choice he has to call Monroe.

 

"Dude!" Monroe's eyes flash a little red. "I told you he wasn't a threat."

"Well, I don't actually know that. Do I?" Nick challenges. "Thought we'd keep it all in a nice legal setting, and I went to cuff him..."

"You went to cuff him." There's a strange flat tone to Rosalee's voice, and the look in her eyes as she looks up from her crouched position next to Sean is colder and harder than Nick would have thought her capable of.

"Dude..." There's a kind of sorrow in Monroe's voice, a soft breath that sighs out, as he looks at Nick as though he's really disappointed in him. Monroe shakes his head. "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Nick's still sure that this is some kind of trick.

"His hands." Monroe looks sad, "the nerve damage. Handcuffs put on too tight, and they just left them on for days after he arrived in Austria. By the time they took them off, the damage was done."

Nick froze. Memories of tightening the cuffs around Sean's wrists. But no, it couldn't be, Nick didn't hurt Sean. He looked down at his quivering enemy, and that was when Sean pushed the hood of his sweatshirt back with a shaking hand, and Nick understood.

Sean looked up, Nick saw the scar on the left lower cheek, and the scars on the right upper side of Sean's face, and Nick got it then. An inkling of what the zauberbiest had been through, and felt sick at his part in it. Saw the scars and wondered if Sean could woge like that. He looked at Monroe, as Sean looked down again, and the blutbad shook his head.

 

They went outside then, leaving Rosalee with Sean, and Nick had to know for sure. "He can't woge, the burns..." So zauberbiest, but not zauberbiest, and Nick wondered what it was like for Sean to be unable to access that side of himself. Knew it had to be painful, whatever Sean's biest had cost him, to have that access cut off, maybe forever, it changed things.

He ached then for the man, the proud creature he had known. Maybe all that happened was not just Renard's fault.

"That's the thing Nick, he's taken his mother's name now."

"Lascelles?"

Monroe nods softly.

And Nick wonders then if what he's done to Sean can even be undone.


	5. Reaching Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick decides to try and reach out to Sean, it doesn't go well.

Nick had a lot to think about, and a lot on his plate, so he left it a few days. It occurred to him that Sean might appreciate a visit from his daughter, and Adalind too,maybe. Having them act as a buffer between him and Sean mightn't be a bad thing either.

It was pouring with rain when he drove up there, Adalind beside him in the passenger seat, fuming quietly. She did not want to be anywhere near Sean Renard. Lascelles, or whatever he was calling himself these days, and she said as much. Diana wanted to see her daddy, she didn't care much about why he was living in this cottage, or why they were there, just that they were.

They walked up to the door and Nick knocked. It was pouring with rain, and Renard was unlikely to be outside. Footsteps came towards the door, and stopped, Nick could hear a kind of nervous shuffle, an indrawn breath, and then the footsteps were running, away from the door, there was a terrific bang as the back door was thrown back on its hinges, and before Nick had time to round the corner, he glimpsed the fleeing figure of Renard.

Adalind smirked quietly to herself, she had children to protect, and she could smell Sean's fear. Good. About time he was suitably scared of her.

 

There was no point in running after him, Nick didn't know which way he had gone, and fleeing in a panic like that, Sean was scared. Nick would never be allowed to get near him in that state. Nick cursed under his breath, he was trying to make it better, and Renard reacting like that made no sense. He closed the back door, no sense letting the rain in, and walked back around the front to Adalind and Diana.

Adalind gave him a snotty look, "Well?" she challenged.

Nick spread his hands wide in a gesture of disbelief, "I don't know why he ran, or where he is."

"So we can go home?" Adalind was already marching back towards the car, Diana trailing reluctantly after her.

Nick wanted to stay, whatever else, Sean had left wearing only the clothes he had on, and Nick doubted very much they took into account the state of the weather. So he was wandering around the woods in the rain. Not a good thing. But Adalind was determined, and Sean was an adult, there wasn't much Nick could do about it. He gave in with ill grace, and they returned to the car.

 

Nick dropped them off at home, and dialled Monroe.

"You what?" The blutbad's tone was decidedly snippy. 

"He ran off, Monroe," Nick complained, "he's an adult, he's mostly in possession of his faculties, and he just ran away. What was I supposed to do?"

"Oh I don't know.... Not go up there with two hexenbiester for company, perhaps? I told you he can't..."

Nick felt sick again. He had never thought of it like that, just that perhaps Sean might derive some comfort from his daughter's presence, maybe, and they might even be able to reach a state where Nick could apologise somehow for having hurt Sean. Perhaps he might possibly have made it to a point where he could forgive Sean all his past transgressions.

"Perhaps I should put out an APB?" Nick mused aloud.

"What? No! Remember how that went last time. It will make things a thousand times worse." Sounds of Monroe packing his things away. "We will have to go back out there and find him."

Nick really didn't fancy traipsing about the woods in the rain, but there was a certain level of 'you owe me' in Monroe's tone, and Nick surely did.

 

Sean stopped running, out of breath, the strain of his damaged body too much to keep going. The rain was coming down heavily now, and Sean's sweatshirt and jeans were completely soaked. He was cold, starting to shiver, and his damaged lungs were compromised. He took a few wheezy breaths and turned around. Perhaps they had gone now, he could creep back, get inside, and get dried off. If they were still around, if he kept away from the windows he would be alright. He turned and began the trudge back to the cottage.

 

Nick pulled up on the bridge where he had parked hours before. The rain had not let up for an instant, and Nick's irritation had given way to full fledged worry. Whatever the truth was, and Nick was still very confused about everything, Sean Renard had been tortured, his health was compromised and he had run off into the rain without apparently any protective clothing.

The cottage was dark, but Nick knocked any way. No response, and he was about to turn away when his super-tuned Grimm hearing heard it. A noise. From inside. Nick reached out and tried the door handle, it was unlocked, drawing his weapon, he pushed the door open.

Nothing rushed out at him, and then there was another noise, it seemed to be coming from the back. Nick headed towards the bedroom.

A soaked hoodie top and jeans were abandoned on the floor, and Nick stepped around them, his eyes on the figure curled under a quilt in the bed.

Sean was burning up, wheezing as he struggled to breathe, and Nick reached for his phone, praying for a signal. He dialled for an ambulance and then for Monroe.

 

The blutbad answered on the second ring. "Nick..."

"He's here, Monroe, and I think he's really sick." The phone was passed over without further word, and Nick listened carefully to Rosalee's instructions. Thanked her, and rang off.

He pulled the quilt further up, covering the shivering zauberbiest, "hang on Sean, help's on the way." Trembling fingers stroked the scarred cheek for a second as Nick willed his zauberbiest not to die.


	6. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Sean seriously ill with pneumonia, and Monroe and Rosalee sorrowfully disappointed in him, Nick finds he needs to square his conscience with the reality. Can he find it in his heart to forgive the zauberbiest, for all the things that he has done? Can Nick find it in himself to forgive his own transgressions? Can they find a middle ground?
> 
> Sean needs to survive first. Nick's heartbroken and ashamed when he realises that he's given the zauberbiest no reason to want to.

It's been four days, and they've been a bad four days at that. Sean is ill. Seriously ill. And Nick's falling apart.

He never expected to care for Sean Lascelles. He's used to seeing the Captain as strong, unflappable, and. once he had thrown in with Black Claw, the enemy. But somewhere deep down inside, Nick acknowledges to himself one of the reasons he has been so blinded by anger is that he was hurt by Sean's actions. He had thought they were better than that.

Seeing Sean on a ventilator, as damaged as he is, the scars of torture on his body, is a horrible revelation. One that he can acknowledge, that they threw Sean away after Jack, when the man was in desperate need. Sean turned to Black Claw because he thought he could get what he wanted, true. But that he believed that was all he had left.

As bad as Nick felt after his mother's murder, Sean had risked his life to save Nick from Adalind's royal plot. Okay, not entirely her fault, biester when driven to extreme measures will do whatever it takes to survive. Adalind was fighting for her daughter.

Sean had fought for Nick. He'd damn nearly lost too. Nick's mother's death came at a devastating price for Sean as well as Nick. So maybe Sean's choices were a little off, but that was hardly a surprise. He'd been running his whole life, he had tried to give his daughter a life different to his own, and that turned out badly. He'd died, once, been pushed close to it a second time, he was broken and devastated and they just shoved him away because Nick's drama came first and once again the zauberbiest found himself surplus to requirements.

If they had all been trying to show Sean that it was possible to have power and still be part of something, they had comprehensively failed.

 

By the time the ambulance had whisked him into hospital, Sean's temperature was through the roof, and he was delirious and rambling. The hospital had tried to tie him down to protect him from himself which sent Sean right over the edge. As sick as he was, he was huge and powerful, and utterly terrified.

No one seemed to know what to do. Then Rosalee stepped forward.

She alone could calm him. Out of his mind, in his place of fear and pain, Sean clung to the fuchsbau like she was his only slender thread to life.

 

Nick walks down the corridor, he has purpose, they've put Sean in a room on his own at the end. A room with a view of the trees outside, and the hillside shrouded in mist. He hopes that today he might get a chance to sit with his biest.

Day one, Nick's presence inspires terror in Sean. Nick has never seen the zauberbiest this broken. Only Monroe and Rosalee can get close to him, and Nick defers to them.

Day two, Monroe is sad, and slightly angry, and rueful and regretful and a host of other emotions that Nick has a hard time classifying and an even harder time getting past. Nick is advised to go home and wait. Monroe will call him.

Day three is almost the same. Though Nick gets to see Sean from a distance, gets to see just a glimpse of how badly Viktor has brutalised his cousin, from outside a hospital door, and it might as well have been a different state for the distance Nick now gets is in between them.

So day four, Nick girds his loins. Or he would if he did such a thing. Sean is mostly conscious now, still struggling with his breathing, they've taken him off the tube, and the mask, both of which caused him to panic, and given him an oxygen tent, which seems to work, in that he hasn't had a meltdown yet. Nick gets that he needs to be quiet and still and patient, and that eight months of torture have basically broken his proud biest, and if he can find it in himself to forgive Sean, perhaps his damaged biest can forgive Nick.

 

Every fibre of Monroe's blutbad being says that this is the last ditch for both of them. This thing, whatever it is, that is between them, and Monroe is not so obtuse that he cannot see it. Has not seen it from the first. Well this thing will either become the prophecy or break the prophecy forever.

After the little trip into the Schwarzwald to find what the keys lead to, and that stick, which Monroe is sure will be the end of them all, Monroe is wary of this last piece of the prophecy. The part that he's been well aware of for over six years, which he is not even certain that Sean has ever known. The part where a Grimm and a Royal of different lineage will come together to achieve great things. That the Seven Houses will unite under a Bastard Prince. That Nick and Sean will somehow lead a new age of Wesen Enlightenment.

Monroe isn't even sure if they can be in the same room as each other.

So potentially this is an disaster of epic proportions in the making.

 

Rosalee slips from her seat at Sean's bedside. He's quiet at last, or more it's that he's completely exhausted. This is for the good of Portland's wesen community, they need Nick and Sean to figure this out between them.

Either they will make history or history will bury them.


	7. Requiescat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Resting in peace, together.

Nick sits in the extremely uncomfortable visitor's chair and waits. While he waits, he takes the time to enumerate the injuries on Sean's body, mostly in his head because Sean's wearing pyjamas now, and his injuries are a lot less visible.

Sean's right hand is resting on the bed, in Nick's reach, long, elegant fingers limply curled, palm down, but it's not the hand itself that holds Nick's attention, but the scarring on the wrist. Slowly Nick reaches out, gently touches, his fingers encircle the hand and pick it up, his eyes never leaving the scars on the wrist. Carefully he turns Sean's hand over, noting that the scars, reddish and painful-looking, go all the way round.

He doesn't even realise that he's crying until a tear splashes down onto the abused wrist, then it takes him a moment to connect that sleepy green eyes are watching him. Sean makes no attempt to snatch his hand back from the man who was at least partially responsible for those scars, he says nothing, and Nick finds a curious sense of comfort in the fact that the zauberbiest is apparently no longer terrified. The forearm is a little tense beneath Nick’s loose grasp but Sean isn’t pulling away. That’s progress, right?

It seems he's been permission to touch, to hold, Sean's not pulling away from him. Maybe the drugs they are alleviating his symptoms with have something to do with that, because the zauberbiest's breathing is still clearly affected, but Nick calms himself, this is not about him. This is about seeing if they can find a way through.

Sean is exhausted, everything hurts, sometimes he closes his eyes and he’s back in the family dungeons, being brutally beaten and…. He closes his eyes. He can’t go there. He can’t even begin to handle that. 

His breathing begin’s to snatch as he fights for control. He really hurts far too much, but he can’t seem to find a way through it. It’s the Grimm aura that surrounds him, it’s not the fact of Nick himself, it’s what eight months of brutality at the hands of Victor’s cunning and evil Grimm.

But in that moment he can acknowledge that where Victor’s man was pure ice, Nick is all fire and passion, a man capable of deep and intense love. Victor’s man seemed barely human. Strong feelings sweep over him, and Sean shivers with their intensity.

Nick nearly drops Sean’s hand as the zauberbiest tenses and starts to fight for every breath. Some instinct makes him keep hold of Sean’s hand, and reach out with his other hand, soothing his terrified biest. Sean quietens down under his gentle touch.

He can’t help it, his hand closes tighter around Nick’s.

“Sean… I” Nick begins, falters, the enormity of what has been done to the zauberbiest spilling into his brain, and it’s his turn to fight for control, less obviously perhaps, but deep within him something changes and Nick knows it. He clears his throat, “I’m sorry.” He says firmly, but keeps his tone light and his touch gentle.

Whatever he believes Sean deserved after Black Claw failed, it wasn’t this, this damage, which Nick knows fairly instinctively will never be fully erased.

From what Monroe has told him, Rosalee fears that Sean’s health is permanently and irrevocably damaged, but Nick feels that they have a chance, because he realises now whatever he feels for Adalind, and he does love her, he also loves Sean.

Sean settles again, still breathing with difficulty, but the pain is easing off, so he hangs on to Nick’s hand because talking is too hard, and Sean doesn’t want Nick to walk away.

Nick twines his fingers around Sean’s, letting the zauberbiest hold his hand, watching as the man falls back to sleep. They have a chance, Nick knows that, but he will wait for his answers, because this is a battle worth the winning.

In the morning.

 

Sean sleeps, aware of the Grimm’s aura around him, he feels safe.


End file.
